Samuel Umtiti’s last appearance came during Barcelona’s 2-1 defeat to Leganes as a knee injury has forced him to miss matches for both his club and France.
The centre-back has recovered from the setback and returned to training last week after successfully managing to avoid surgery.
Spanish newspaper AS now claims that despite the World Cup winners’ current situation, it should be seen how the 25-year-old’s knee will hold up for him to play regularly at the highest level.
If the defender’s recovery is not as desired by the La Liga winners, the sporting leaders at Camp Nou are ‘convinced’ that they have to bring in a player in that position in the January transfer window.
Ernesto Valverde’s side will look at the profile of those players who will not cost them a lot and can help them compete at the highest level in the second half of the season. 
The reasons why they don’t want to spend big is because they have planned to invest on strengthening the centre-back position next summer and Ajax’s Matthijs de Ligt is the priority target.
